Most admired for its laziness, to be sure.
I’m sorry, I channeled SJ for a second there.

Rich Morey — 11:09 AM on March 04, 2010

How come Microsoft is #11 in the overall list (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/mostadmired/2010/full_list/) and Adobe is not in the top 50.. And Apple is #1 overall but is considered “Computers” not “Computer Software”. No offense to Adobe but I think the “Overall” rating is more important / impressive and I’m sorry to see that Adobe is not even in the top 50.[I haven’t looked into the methodology, and I’d have liked to have seen Adobe place higher in the overall list. My guess is that it’s just not a top-of-mind, household name among consumers. Everyone (e.g. anyone who watches an online video) uses Adobe software every day, but they don’t think about it. –J.]

Not on the top of everyone’s mind, John? I can’t tell you how many comments I get about ‘Adobe’. Such as “I tried updating Adobe, but I still can’t print”, and “Oh, I use Adobe for all of my photo retouching”, or the ever popular “Adobe” to the simple question, ‘what software are you using?’
For some odd reason, I run into folks that seem to think ‘Adobe’ is synonymous with Photoshop and Acrobat. I’ve even encountered folks who think that ‘Adobe’ and ‘Acrobat’ are competing products.
Perhaps I need to seek different friends… ;)

Not on the top of everyone’s mind, John? I can’t tell you how many comments I get about ‘Adobe’. Such as “I tried updating Adobe, but I still can’t print”, and “Oh, I use Adobe for all of my photo retouching”, or the ever popular “Adobe” to the simple question, ‘what software are you using?’
For some odd reason, I run into folks that seem to think ‘Adobe’ is a synonym for Photoshop or Acrobat. I’ve even encountered folks who think that ‘Adobe’ and ‘Acrobat’ are competing products.
Perhaps I need to seek different friends… ;)

Marky — 12:38 PM on March 04, 2010

That Microsoft win out over Apple for “software” says everything you need to know about those ratings. Regardless of whether they say ‘survey’ or not, News organizations like CNN and FOX have a history of cooking such statistics. And do it without a conscience these days sadly.
And yes, Adobe should be higher on the overall list

Rich Morey — 2:43 PM on March 04, 2010

I’ve had the same experience where people believe Adobe Acrobat to just be “Adobe”.

I would think this list was compiled prior to Adobe’s decision to “Offshore” their customer support.
“Ello, my name is Yimmie, how may I elp you?”

Eric — 10:27 PM on March 08, 2010

Of course, we all know the company overall that is most admired. For the third year in a row. And it a long way ahead of #2.
And so is Goldman Sachs.
But then as other people have pointed out, look who is judging who is most admired. The echo chamber factor has a lot to do with who wins. Apple’s #1 because right now they are riding high (rightly) on tremendous success after success in a down economy. Not long ago, they were “beleagured” and “irrelevant.”
The flying fickle finger of fate has a way of pointing in all sorts of directions.